Blockchain 2B company is hot: the company takes orders madly, employees 996, year-end awards have increased significantly

Text | Ratchet

On October 24, 2019, a speech by the national leader made the blockchain industry gasp.

No longer an early attempt by individual industries, blockchain has become a common choice for all industries. Relevant companies operating silently in the development of blockchain have also begun to usher in a high light moment.

Their workloads have skyrocketed and their operations have landed across the country. Some business people need to visit five places on a business trip and cannot go home for a month. There are even company owners on business trips and empty offices.

There are also companies that promote the leadership of the blockchain department overnight and issue huge year-end awards for employees.

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Passion, busyness, and a sense of mission have become the keywords of today's Chinese blockchain practitioners.

01 raise eyebrows and exhale

For the Chinese blockchain industry, October 24, 2019 is a key node.

On this day, the Central Political Bureau presided over the collective learning conference. At the meeting, national leaders pointed out that the blockchain should be used as an important breakthrough in independent innovation of core technologies, and the development of blockchain technology and industrial innovation should be accelerated.

A day later, Xinhua News Agency released the news.

Blockchain practitioner Zhang Fan clearly remembers that the news was released around 6pm on Friday. At that time, the company boss was reposting the message directly in the entire group, and @ the brand person in charge: "New media colleagues, quickly reprint."

That evening, Zhang Fan's colleagues were discussing the news. Zhang Fan took out his mobile phone and saw the message swipe the screen in the circle of friends.

"It's completely embarrassing, first shocked, then secretly happy, and finally I forwarded the circle of friends and started carnival." He said, "This time I finally raised my eyebrows and exhaled."

In 2018, Zhang Fan switched from the Internet industry to work as a product manager at this blockchain company. The company is mainly targeted at B-end customers, and customizes the blockchain system for the latter, and has never involved the currency issuance business.

For more than a year, Zhang Fan suffered all his grievances.

His friends around him hardly understand the blockchain and will confuse the coin circle with the chain circle. Some friends will send articles such as "99% of blockchain projects are scams" and "Domestic blockchains are scammers", reminding Zhang Fan to "get lost and return".

Once and twice, Zhang Fan would patiently explain to them. After more, he chose to give up, and only jokingly said, "Yes, we are 'liars who engage in MLM.'"

After October 24, everything has changed, and blockchain technology has become a new national strategy.

On October 26, the blockchain made headlines on the front page of People's Daily. Two days later, the Learning Power APP launched a blockchain popular science article. Blockchain has become a hotly debated topic.

Zhang Fan's civil servant friends received a notice issued by the province and asked to learn the blockchain. A friend of the stock market also asked him to recommend a blockchain concept stock.

"Finally we don't need to be wronged," Zhang Fan said. "This time, we are standing in the center of the stage."

In this regard, Even, the director of operations of the high-light software blockchain application division, also felt the same.

In 2019, Yuanguang Software organized a blockchain sharing conference in Zhuhai. As the person in charge, he shared the registration poster to many groups.

As a result, a group of friends directly scolded: "You guys who are doing the blockchain are scammers." Even tried to explain, but was kicked out of the group, "feeling very sad."

After October 24th, waiting for the high-light software to hold a blockchain sharing meeting again, the audience recruitment was abnormally smooth, and soon full.

"If you don't understand the blockchain, you will lag behind the times." Some netizens said with emotion.

For the blockchain industry, a new future is slowly unfolding.

02 workload surge

Change is happening subtly.

After October 24, Beyondsoft's agencies located throughout the country began to receive customers' inquiries about blockchain business.

The requirements were aggregated to headquarters, and within half a month, Even and colleagues' workload almost doubled.

Duncan, a consultant of Guangguang Software, recalled that he once went to Jilin for a business trip, and received customer demand from Shaanxi on the way, and flew directly from Jilin to Shaanxi. In the end, he visited customers in five places on a business trip and did not return home for a month.

At the headquarter of Yuanguang Software, the blockchain department hangs a map of China on the wall. Every time someone goes on a business trip, he puts a post-it note on the map. In the last two months of 2019, this map was almost full.

Map of China in the High Light Software Office

"Since November, the business colleagues' positions have been almost empty," Even said. "The annual meeting is coming up. HR asked all departments to take a group photo. We dragged on for a whole month to get everyone together."

Zhang Fan's "bitter days" also came. On Saturday, October 26, Zhang Fan was called back to the company to work overtime. The project he was responsible for should have been delivered by the end of the year, but customers were willing to add extra money as long as they could deliver it a month in advance.

"Customers are very anxious and want to take advantage of the hotspot of the blockchain to launch the project as soon as possible and publicize it externally." Zhang Fan said.

On the same weekend, Chen Menglin, director of operations of Xunlei Chain's open platform, was also busy. Few customers would consult the business on weekends, but on October 26 and 27, Thunder Chain received more than 40 business inquiries.

In fact, this is a common situation for many blockchain companies. Their business almost stopped proactively expanding, and they simply couldn't handle the business needs.

996 and even 997 have become the norm for blockchain practitioners, but most of them are "painful and happy."

A blockchain practitioner from a major Internet company revealed to a blockchain that after October 24, the company's senior management immediately promoted the head of the blockchain department from the director to the director, and promised year-end awards for employees of the department Will be greatly improved.

In fact, after October 24th, almost all companies developing blockchain business have added investment in blockchain.

"In the past, the company official micro-posts, at most one of the ten articles mentioned the blockchain; now, at least four of the ten articles are related to the blockchain." Even said.

03 reflection under the craze

At the end of 2019, while wage reductions and job cuts in some industries, the blockchain industry is booming.

"In 2019, our collections have grown rapidly," Even said.

In Zhang Fan's view, as long as it is a blockchain company that is serious about technology, platform, and no currency, it should be very moist right now.

At present, blockchain is no longer an innovative attempt by individual companies, but has been accepted by a wider range of industries.

Chen Menglin found that in the past, most of Thunder Link's customers came from the fields of finance and copyright.

Now, customers in the fields of agriculture, commerce and trade also come to our door. For example, an agricultural product company located in a township wants to build a blockchain e-commerce platform.

Li Chen, who works in a boiler equipment factory in Shanxi, was also asked by the leader to prepare an internal report on how to combine boiler manufacturing with blockchain.

In this case, some blockchain practitioners have begun to think about whether some industries are a bit "blind and enthusiastic" about blockchain.

"We have met some customers, and their appeal is 'I want to be a blockchain'." Zhang Fan said, "As for whether it is necessary to integrate the blockchain with their business and how to integrate the blockchain, they often lack thinking. "

He once rejected a client who opened a gas station. "They have three gas stations in the local area, and they hope to use the blockchain to transform the membership system of gas stations." Zhang Fan said, "We repeatedly evaluated the product model together and finally came to the conclusion: it can be done, but it is not necessary."

"In fact, under the guise of blockchain, many customers just have the idea of ​​developing a blockchain, but do not know what they want." In Zhang Fan's view, this may bring some people an opportunity.

For example, some companies may over-package and preach the concept of blockchain and induce customers who do not need the blockchain at all to develop blockchain products in order to earn development costs.

Over time, these people can ruin the reputation of the entire industry.

Although the blockchain is good, it must be sensible.

If any industry wants to make a breakthrough, it needs some people willing to "sit on the cold bench".

The same goes for the blockchain industry. Because of the large investment in the development of the underlying technology and the slow profit, in the past, practitioners in this field have been persistent in loneliness.

At the same time, they have to endure all kinds of misunderstandings and satires.

Now they finally see hope.

The chaos was rectified, the industry was on track, and the cold bench was covered with heat. It is foreseeable that the blockchain industry will inevitably have a bright future.

* Some of the respondents in the text are pseudonyms.

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